If this was the 9/11 season opener against the Tennessee Titans, then pulling out all stops to get that game on local TV would be understandable.

But at some point, the ticket giveaways and not abiding by the true spirit of NFL blackout rules have to stop because that devalues the product. The Jaguars said they initially declined Anheuser-Busch’s assistance but relented because, in part, they wanted to keep the momentum going of not having a blackout since 2009.

“This is a one-and-done deal,” said Jaguars senior vice president Macky Weaver. “At first, [owner] Wayne [Weaver] said no. I went back to him and said we should take a look at [doing] it. We knew this was the game we’d have the most difficulty [selling all non-premium seats].

“If we want the team to be successful, we need fans to buy tickets. From that perspective, it’s a little bit of a negative.”

Actually, more than a little bit, because the Jaguars still had 8,000-plus tickets to sell as of Wednesday to avoid the blackout. There’s no way that kind of surplus gets sold that quickly. So what happens the next time the Jaguars have a big number of unsold tickets for a home game? There’ll be no sense of urgency among fans to buy tickets.

In the back of their minds, they’ll think some company will step up again, buy thousands of tickets, and they can watch the game on TV instead of filling EverBank Field.

This is the risk the Jaguars take. You get fans conditioned to believe that purchasing tickets isn’t necessary to watch the game. Team officials insist this ticket buyout is a one-time exception. They’ll never do this again.

Easy to say now, but the pressure for Wayne Weaver to have a three-hour infomercial for his product on Sunday is substantial. Also, that $100,000 the Jaguars have to give back to EverBank each time there’s a blackout must weigh into the equation.

The Jaguars chose short-term gratification, avoiding the negative national perception of a blackout, over the long-term good of adding value to the game-day experience.

After experiencing 25 blackouts from 2001-09, the Jaguars gave in so as not to take the public relations hit. But here’s the problem: Everyone knows this game is, technically, a blackout. To pretend otherwise is to deny reality.

Macky Weaver said this blackout-lifting game is an “anomaly,” that fans shouldn’t expect a sugar daddy ponying up in the future. And on what grounds should Jaguars fans be buying that?